Kerry accuses Syria of `undeniable’ chemical attack

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Secretary of State John Kerry speaks at the State Department in Washington, Monday, Aug. 26, 2013, about the situation in Syria. Kerry said chemical weapons were used in Syria, and accused Assad of destroying evidence.

In a harsh rebuke this afternoon of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s escalating atrocities, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry said today the regime’s “undeniable” use of chemical warfare last week to slaughter civilians “is a moral obscenity” that calls for “accountability.”

It was a clear hint that President Obama is weighing military action.

“The president will make an informed decision about how to respond,” Massachusetts’ former senior senator said at a press briefing on the crisis, adding, “the administration is actively consulting with members of Congress.

“Nothing today is more serious, and nothing is receiving more serious scrutiny,” Kerry said. “Our sense of basic humanity is offended not only by this cowardly crime, but also the cynical attempt to cover it up.”

Kerry said the “international norm” that the indiscriminate unleashing of chemical weapons must never happen again has been violated by Syria despite that it is “a conviction shared even by countries that agree on little else.”

Kerry said he has been in contact with foreign ministers around the world about Syria and “the gravity of this situation,” in addition to watching sickening social media videos of the dead and dying victims, including “a man who held up his dead child, wailing, while chaos swirled around him.”

“What is before us today is real and it is compelling,” Kerry said. “We have all of us become witnesses. Everything these images are already screaming at us is real. Chemical weapons were used in Syria.”

Kerry said al-Assad’s initial resistance to allowing United Nations inspectors into the town of Moadamiyet al-Sham to search for evidence of chemical warfare “is not the behavior of a government that has nothing to hide. In fact, the regime’s belated decision to allow access is too late, and it’s too late to be credible.”

The Syrian government agreed yesterday to grant U.N. inspectors full access, though inspectors today reported being under sniper fire.

In an interview today with a Russian newspaper reported by the Syrian Arab News Agency, al-Assad taunted U.S. threats of military intervention.

“America has waged many wars, but has never been able to achieve its political objectives from any of them,” al-Assad said. “It will also not be able to convince the American people of the benefits of this war, nor will it be able to convince the people in this region of their policies and plans. Global powers can wage wars, but can they win them?”